There’s a lot going on in the world of coffee.
Lavazza just brought its Tablì to the United States — a simple puck made purely of ground espresso, eliminating the need for the single-serving packaging that environmentalists decry and providing the opportunity to sell a new proprietary machine for home brewers.
Blue Bottle Coffee, a pioneer in third-wave brewing, recently came out with a new line of cold espresso drinks that don’t require an espresso machine to make.
And of course the drive-through coffee chains led by Dutch Bros and 7 Brew are kicking ass and taking names as they expand and guzzle down market share.
This is all going on while climate change threatens many of the world’s coffee-growing regions, pushing producers to move to cooler climates, particularly those growing Arabica beans, the more delicate of the two major coffee varieties.
The other variety, Robusta, is named appropriately. It’s sturdier and more drought- and pest-resistant and can handle heat waves that would send Arabica trees into a panic, produces more beans per tree, and can be harvested year-round rather than once a year. It also contains about double the amount of caffeine as Arabica beans, an important selling point in this era of energy-drink-crazed young people.
But Robusta has been characterized as “junk” beans for its harsher flavor elements. Italian espresso makers, who used to use small amounts of it, around 20%, in their blends because Robusta produces a rich crema — the foam that rises to the top of espresso — have mostly ditched it for 100% Arabica. They probably did that, at least in part, because “100% Arabica” is an easily digestible marketing claim.
Robusta growers also largely missed the wave of production upgrades that Arabica has undergone — hand-picking, rigorous sorting, dialing in growing practices to produce beans at their best, and improved processing.
That’s not because the growers weren’t paying attention; they just took a different route. Robusta trees are sturdy enough that you can harvest them by machine-shaking them (almonds are harvested similarly, by the way), and the beans have traditionally been sold as commodities to be made into instant coffee or budget retail brands.
“There was no differentiation within Robusta,” said Gabriel Shohet, cofounder and co-CEO of Black Sheep Coffee, which, as you can tell from its name, likes to be contrarian.
The Miami-based company mostly operates in the United Kingdom, France, and the Middle East, with just eight domestic locations in Texas and Florida.
Arabica, on the other hand, has an endless supply of varietals, from super-premium Geisha and Jamaican Blue Mountain to more mainstream varieties like Kenya AA. Each has its own flavor profiles and marketing approach.
Shohet says a variety of Robusta producers are attempting to do the same thing with Robusta.
Indeed, when I was at the SIGEP trade show in Rimini, Italy, a couple of years ago, I sampled an espresso made of 100% Robusta from Ivory Coast. It was markedly different from Arabica, with more of a bass note, as it were, and aromatics I had trouble identifying, but that were certainly different from typical espresso.
“There’s nothing wrong with the species, it’s just the mass production of it and the processing methods,” Shohet said. So he and business partner Eirik Holth sought out Robusta producers who were treating it with the same care as Arabica producers.
They found several of them, and now source Robusta from coffee-growing regions across the planet to offer a different type of coffee.
Shohet said Robusta beans are lower in acidity and have rich flavor elements such as dark chocolate and walnut, as opposed to Arabica’s more citrusy and floral qualities.
Oh, and that rich crema? He said that comes from Robusta’s higher protein content, and you know how much your customers love protein.
Also, its fuller body and more robust flavor can stand up to all the milk, syrups, and cold foam that most people add to their coffee.
“All that complexity of flavor in Arabica gets lost, anyway, when you mix it with milk or sugar,” he said. “It’s just a superior product in my opinion.”
Black Sheep’s Robusta Revival blend, introduced 13 years ago, now makes up more than 85% of its total sales.
“We didn’t do it just to do something different. It’s a really great product and we want to do more of it,” said Shohet.